State of Michigan Retirement System Has $25.89 Million Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

State of Michigan Retirement System increased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 197,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 2,600 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $25,893,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6,500.0% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,828 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $410,000 after buying an additional 3,770 shares during the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 11,512 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 1,661 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new position in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $573,000. Logan Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth approximately $321,000. Finally, Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 288,436 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,903,000 after buying an additional 27,534 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 219 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 34,445 shares in the company, valued at $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $132.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $117.00 to $114.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Argus upped their price target on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $123.20 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $122.38 and its 200-day moving average is $124.49. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $88.59 and a twelve month high of $133.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.53, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The business’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 117.31%.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.